Between a collection of story-driven PvE missions, the addition of a fresh PvP game mode, and the arrival of a new hero, Overwatch 2 Season 6 is set to be one of the biggest content drops yet for Blizzard's revamped hero shooter. It's almost here, and ahead of its launch, the developers have revealed quite a bit about everything that fans can expect.
If you're curious about everything that Season 6 — also dubbed Overwatch 2: Invasion — has to offer, look no further. Below, you'll find a complete overview of everything coming at the start of and throughout the season, including new pieces of content, events, Battle Pass skins, and more.
Overwatch 2 Season 6: Release date and launch time
The release date for Overwatch 2 Season 6 is a bit unusual compared to past launches. The vast majority of new patches for the game are pushed live on Tuesdays, but the Invasion update is releasing on August 10, 2023, which is a Thursday. Once it arrives, Season 5's Battle Pass will become unavailable as Season 6's is rotated in.
Ahead of the season's launch, Blizzard has confirmed that the patch will come out at 12 p.m. PT / 3 p.m. ET. This is typically when most updates for Overwatch 2 come out, so this release time is hardly a surprise.
Overwatch 2 updates are global, so if you're in a different time zone than the ones previously mentioned, the patch will come out later on August 10 or even early on August 11 for you. In the table below, we've listed when the season will go live in each regional time zone.
Overwatch 2 Season 6: Invasion roadmap
We'll get into all of the specific things that Overwatch 2 Season 6 is bringing in the sections below, but if you're just looking for a quick-and-dirty look at what's coming, this official roadmap from Blizzard is a great resource. Here's a list of everything that's on the way:
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New PvP Gameplay
- New Support hero: Illari
- Sun-based abilities
- Railgun-style weapon
- Can short jump to escape crowd control
- Can leap into the air and fire an explosive solar grenade
- Can attach a healing turret to surfaces
- New game mode: Flashpoint
- Two maps:
- Suravasa
- New Junk City
- Two maps:
- New Support hero: Illari
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New PvE Co-Op Story Missions
- Three missions:
- Resistance (Rio de Janeiro)
- Liberation (Toronto)
- Ironclad (Gothenburg)
- Three missions:
- King's Row Underworld Co-Op Event: Aug. 10 to Sep. 5
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OW2 Anniversary Event: Begins Sep. 19
- Battle for Olympus, Starwatch, and Mischief and Magic modes and cosmetics return
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Hero Mastery: Begins Sep. 5
- Learn how to play each hero
- New Player Progression
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New Invasion Battle Pass
- Premium for 1,000 Overwatch Coins
- 80 Tiers, Mythic Null Sector Ana and more
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OW2 Invasion Bundle for $15
- Includes access to Story Missions, Legendary Skin, and 1,000 Overwatch Coins
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OW2 Invasion Ultimate Bundle
- Includes Invasion Bundle, Premium Battle Pass +20 Tiers, 2 Legendary skins, and 1,000 Overwatch Coins
Compared to previous Overwatch 2 seasons, Season 6 doesn't have many new events. Instead, the main draw of the season is the addition of long-awaited PvE story missions, along with the arrival of a brand new Support hero to play. If you missed events from older seasons, though, make sure to log on during the OW2 Anniversary event so you can play their content while they're briefly available again.
Overwatch 2 Season 6: Battle Pass skins, rewards, and price
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Just like older seasons did, Overwatch 2 Season 6 is launching with a new 80-tier Battle Pass for players to progress through as they play the game. It's themed after Invasion and the season's PvE missions, and while the Free reward track of the pass will get you a solid chunk of its rewards, you'll need to buy the Premium Battle Pass to get access to all of its contents. The Premium Battle Pass costs 1,000 Overwatch Coins, or $10 worth. Notably, this means you could buy the Battle Pass with the 1,000 Overwatch Coins you get with the $15 OW2 Invasion Bundle.
In addition to items like skins, emotes, voice lines, and sprays, the Battle Pass will also include sums of Overwatch Credits throughout both of its reward tracks. This special currency can be used to unlock older skins and cosmetics from the original Overwatch, making them particularly valuable to fans that got into Blizzard's hero shooter with Overwatch 2. 1,500 are expected to be earnable from the Free track, while 500 will likely be available from the Premium one.
Speaking of skins, the official Overwatch 2 Season 6 trailer provided fans with a decent look at six of them that will be available on the season's Battle Pass. You can view these skins for Roadhog, Zarya, Winston, Torbjorn, Ashe, and Pharah in the gallery above. Note that we won't know which of these skins are on the Free reward track and which ones are on the Premium one until the Invasion update actually goes live.
Season 6 Mythic skin: Null Sector Ana
The Overwatch 2 Season 6 Mythic skin is Null Sector Ana. Like previous Mythic skins, it will be available on the final tier of the Premium Battle Pass. As its name suggests, it makes Ana look like an operative working for the Null Sector omnic terrorist group that acts as the antagonistic force in Overwatch 2: Invasion. You can view the skin in the image above.
Since this is a Mythic skin, we know you'll be able to customize it extensively with different colors and options for armor and clothing once you've unlocked it. At the moment, though, it's unclear what these options will be.
Overwatch 2 Season 6: Invasion PvE Story Missions
The meat of Overwatch 2 Season 6 lies with its new PvE story missions. In them, you and four other players (or AI-controlled bots) will co-op together to take on Null Sector, a group of omnic terrorists led by none other than Ramattra, the tank hero introduced in Season 2. In total, there will be three new missions to play, including "Resistance" set in Rio de Janeiro, "Liberation" set in Toronto, and "Ironclad" on the all-new Gothenburg map.
Based on what we've seen of these levels so far, we know that you'll be able to play as heroes that are either returning to the Overwatch task force or are allied with it. This includes Reinhardt, Winston, Tracer, Sojourn, Genji, Mei, Brigitte, Lucio, and Baptiste, and we anticipate that some other characters will be playable as well.
Similar to the limited-time Overwatch Storm Rising level that came out in 2019, these Overwatch 2: Invasion missions will push the story of the Overwatch universe forward with multiple cutscenes and lots of dialogue between the characters present. It seems as if Overwatch will reform and band together to stop Null Sector (and Talon, which has been growing strength in the shadows), but we won't know the concrete narrative consequences of these missions until they've been released.
To access Season 6's story missions, you'll need to purchase the OW2 Invasion Bundle for $15. In addition to including "permanent access" to all three levels, it also allows you to earn an exclusive Legendary skin and 1,000 Overwatch Coins.
Overwatch 2 Season 6: Flashpoint mode and maps
Overwatch 2 Season 6 is also introducing a new PvP mode called Flashpoint. In it, each team will be tasked with capturing control points called flashpoints scattered around massive maps. Only one flashpoint can be active at a time, with the one at the center of the map always unlocking at the start of the round. Once a flashpoint is captured, it locks and a random neutral flashpoint is then unlocked. This continues until one team captures three of the five flashpoints.
Notably, Flashpoint maps are the largest in Overwatch's history, and have been designed to be completely symmetrical so that both teams have the exact same cover, sightlines, and pathing to work with. However, things become less symmetrical when flashpoints closer to one team's spawn unlock. In these scenarios, one team will likely get to a point before the other, resulting in more of an attack/defend engagement where a diverse array of Overwatch 2 heroes can perform well.
When Season 6 goes live, there will be two Flashpoint maps available: Suravasa and New Junk City. Over time, we expect to see Blizzard develop more maps for the mode, as it's a core one and will be in both Unranked and Competitive playlists permanently.
Overwatch 2 Season 6: New Support hero Illari
Like the previous new hero, Lifeweaver, Season 6's addition to the Overwatch cast is a Support hero. Her name is Illari, and while we don't have any concrete information about her abilities available yet, there is quite a bit we can piece together based on the footage of her in the season's official trailer.
Illari seems to fight by harnessing solar energy, and uses it to power a railgun-type energy weapon that's similar to Sojourn's. She's capable of jumping to escape attacks and crowd control abilities like Orisa's Terra Surge Ultimate, and she can also leap into the air when "Captive Sun" is ready to shoot an explosive grenade down on her enemies. Additionally, she can throw a healing turret on surfaces that heals nearby allied players.
Aside from the fact that she's Peruvian, there's very little we know about Illari. Her backstory isn't known yet and it's unclear where she fits into the Overwatch universe, but Blizzard will likely release an origin story video soon that clears things up.
How to unlock Illari in Overwatch 2
While Illari will be added to the game once Season 6 goes live, she won't immediately be available to play for everyone. To unlock Illari, you'll need to purchase the Season 6 Premium Battle Pass or reach Tier 45 on the Free reward track of the Battle Pass. This means that free-to-play players won't get access to the new hero for a while, though you can play as her right away if you buy the Battle Pass.
Overwatch 2 Season 6: Patch notes and changes
On top of all the new pieces of content coming in Overwatch 2: Invasion, Blizzard is taking the opportunity to make tons of sweeping balance changes to the game with the Season 6 update. In fact, according to a statement from Game Director Aaron Keller in a Director's Take article, "Nearly half of our heroes are getting balance changes."
So far, we know these tweaks will include a range nerf for Cassidy's Magnetic Grenade through the addition of a 1.5 second travel time maximum, along with a health buff to compensate and some damage falloff changes as well. Torbjorn is also getting a fire rate and weapon swap speed increase buff, while Soldier: 76's Helix Rockets are getting a damage nerf and his Tactical Visor Ultimate will be made slightly more expensive. Orisa's Fortify will also grant 125 bonus health starting in Season 6, and her damage falloff range is being extended a bit.
Lifeweaver is also getting some changes, including a buff to Tree of Life that makes it provide up to 100 HP of Overhealth to allies, the conversion of some of his health to rechargeable shields, and extra self-healing from Rejuvenating Dash usage. Additionally, Kiriko's Protection Suzu will do less healing, but will provide a large burst of healing when it cleanses a negative effect. The slight boop effect it causes is also being removed. Mercy's damage boost is also being nerfed slightly, down to 25% from 30%.
Other tweaks, including some adjustments to Sombra, buffs to the blocks used by Doomfist and Ramattra, and improvements to Bastion's Tactical Grenade are coming in Season 6, too. Damage against armor is also being reworked to be additive instead of multiplicative, making it feel less powerful when stacked with other damage-reducing effects. When the full Season 6 patch notes are released, we'll make sure to update this section with them.
Overwatch 2 Season 6: Trailer
Below, we've embedded the official trailer for Overwatch 2 Season 6, as well as a "Fight the Invasion" trailer that focuses on the narrative context of its story missions.
Overwatch 2 is one of the best Xbox games on the market for fans of multiplayer shooters, and it's available now for free on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, PS5, and PS4. The Overwatch 2 Hero Pack costs $20, and gives you instant access to Sojourn, Junker Queen, Kiriko, and Ramattra along with 1,000 Overwatch Coins and the Blackhardt Reinhardt, Imp Mercy, and Nevermore Reaper Legendary skins.
